I sat up in my lounger, trying to position myself in a way that made my thighs look smaller and my stomach flatter. I was grateful for my sunglasses so I could gawk without being too obvious. “Who are those two guys?”
I almost said boys, but they weren’t boys at all. The first was rangy, with long, lean muscles and broad shoulders, like a swimmer. His shaggy, light brown hair hit his shoulders, and one arm had the beginnings of a full sleeve tattoo. The other was broader and even taller. His thickly muscled shoulders and chest brought to mind a lumberjack, as did his black beard.
“Whoa,” I whispered.
“Hot, right? That’s Santiago and Diego. Mo poached them from two other bands. He and Alex decided they wanted to stop messing around and get serious, so they hunted down other musicians. I doubt it’ll go anywhere, but it’s nice to have something pretty to look at every day.”
Yael was the only person I knew who called Murray by his first name. He’d been Murray since the second I’d met him, but I couldn’t say I’d ever heard her call him that. He was always Alex to her.
From the other side of the pool, Mo pointed us out to the new guys. “That’s my sister, Yael, and my sister from another mister, Maeve. Say hi, then pretend you never saw them. They’re completely off-limits.”
Yael flipped him off, but she wasn’t really mad. Rockers weren’t her style. She’d take a preppy boy any day of the week.
I gave Murray a wave and the new guys a smile. The one with shaggy hair saluted me, while the other stared at me for a long, drawn out moment. So long, I became aware of the breath caught in my throat.
Finally, Mo and Murray pushed him into the pool, cutting off whatever had been passing between us.
“Whoa,” I whispered to myself. As much as I liked Yael, a part of me wanted to keep this one to myself. Nothing would ever come of my attraction, I knew that. But in my eighteen years gracing this green earth, I’d never had a moment like that before.
Santiago
“You have any water?” I asked, wiping my sweaty brow with my T-shirt.
Mo jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Go into the kitchen, there are bottles in the fridge. Grab a couple, okay?”
“You don’t mind me going into your house?”
He looked at me funny, like he had no idea why I’d be asking a question like that. But the kid hadn’t seen where I grew up. If he had, he’d probably think twice about letting a guy like me walk around his parents’ mansion.
“No, go ahead. Grab some snacks from the pantry if you’re hungry.”
It was our second day of rehearsing as a band, and I wondered what I was doing here. Mo and Murray were serious and had talent and drive…and I’d been band-hopping through the first half of my twenties. I’d only said yes on the caveat Diego could join too.Hewanted this—the music, the fame—more than anything.
Mo’s house was palatial. I hadn’t grown up in a dump, but my entire house could probably fit in his kitchen.
I stopped at the threshold, finding the kitchen already occupied. The girl from yesterday sat at the island on a stool, popping grapes into her mouth and nodding her head to the music coming from her phone—and she wasn’t listening to teeny bopper shit. No, she was listening to Avenged Sevenfold, the fingertips of her free hand tapping the granite counter in time to the music.
“Hey.”
Her head shot up, eyes wide with surprise. She held a finger up, quickly chewed the bite she’d just taken, and swallowed. “Hi. Are you lookin’ for something?”
I pointed to the fridge. “Water.”
“There’s plenty of it in there. Is it swelterin’ out in the garage?”
I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. “Pretty hot. I work in a garage, so I’m used to it. Where are you from?”
“Georgia. What gave me away?” she teased.
“Don’t hear too many accents like that around here. Do you live here?”
“In this house?” I nodded. “No, but I’m here a lot. I live next door.”
She said next door like she could look out the window and see her house, when in reality, each sprawling mansion sat on something like an acre of land, a copse of trees separating one property from the next.
“You into metal?”
“Oh.” She turned the volume down on her phone. “Yes, I am. It isn’t all I like, but I do listen to a lot of it.”